Recent content by ralphius

So it turns out I have one of the Hotpoint\Indesit models that likes to occasionally catch fire. I'm a bit annoyed about this as I spent good money on this machine. Thankfully mine has been working perfectly so far. I rang the hotline (on hold for 30 min) only to get a clueless operator who...

I've finally had a quote back and he recommends doing both sides (he reasons if one lead valley has failed, and they're a hundred years old it won't be long before the valley on the other side goes too) for about £2k inc. scaffolding. Even that is double what I was expecting. Wish I could get up...

Had the first contractor round to look at it, he reckons the lead valley should be replaced with new lead, the valley boards are probably saveable cos it's been caught early enough and he'll work off a scaffold tower. Still waiting on a price.

My job for the weekend was to remove the polystyrene tiles off the ceiling of one of my upstairs rooms. As soon as I slipped a putty knife behind one, the lath and plaster crumbled and disintegrated: Removing the weakened plaster shows the laths have rotted away and the bits that are left are...

Have measured it with a micrometer and it was the imperial 7/029 cable.

Damn, yes that would have been simpler. Bit late now as a couple of the heater sockets have had the cable removed completely and I've reused the backbox for a cat5e network socket.

Sorry yes I did mean RCD, my mistake. Why was it silly to have the 2nd CU removed? As far as I'm aware I couldn't have re-used the 5 radial circuits from the off-peak CU or left them live and connected?

Sounds like I can't do it then, shame. For those wondering how I can avoid re-terminating things in the CU, a quick text diagram. (DS=Double Socket, CU=Consumer Unit) +--+ +---+ |DS+---------+DS2| +--+ +---+ | | | | | |...

Evenin' all, So my house used to have storage heaters, they've been taken out and scrapped and the separate mini consumer unit for them taken out as well. This has left a switch that does nothing on the wall and a piece of cable (stranded twin+earth, 7 strands on the live, 11.5mm across width...

Thanks for the replies, based on your comments I've decided to do the job myself as the ceiling is at just over 2.4m from the floor. EFLImpudence that's exactly what I needed to know :-) In answer to other questions, Yes the bathroom has a small opening frosted glass window, facing directly...

Hello all, I'm updating a bathroom in a hundred year old end-terrace. I'm adding a shower (the type with a mixer valve off the combi) as it didn't have a shower before and I want to add an inline extractor fan working off the light switch on an overrun timer. I intend to put the extractor fan...

In case anybody comes across this thread in future, I now have a gas meter installed. They were unhappy that my ECV had no handle on it when they arrived and he had to call Wales & West to come and fit one, but as for box\ECV placement they couldn't seem to care less. Photo of my new gas meter :-)

Yes, the bit you can see in the pictures appears to be a protective sleeve. If I hold the ECV I can wiggle it side to side slightly inside the sleeve.

@gas112 Glad you said that about the fitting. I thought the fitting might be designed to go through a box, even seems to have a rubber washer on it. Trouble is the large nut that looks like it's designed to hold the box (not the one holding the ECV on!) is rusted solid, and one thing I am NOT...

I think it's Wales & West utilities who are responsible for my area now, according to this map anyway: http://www2.nationalgrid.com/UK/Our-company/Gas/Gas-Distribution-Network/ Many thanks for that document, first I've seen that gives proper informative diagrams! Interestingly, I had a look...